Joe Root has become England’s highest-ranked batsman in the Reliance ICC Player Rankings for Test Batsmen after hitting his fourth century of his career in the Trent Bridge Test against India, which ended in a draw on Sunday.

Joe Root became the highest ranked English batsman after scoring his fourth century against India. Photo: WICB

The 23-year-old from Yorkshire scored a fine 154 not out and featured in a record 198-run last wicket stand with James Anderson (81). For this achievement, Root, who represented England in the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup 2010 in New Zealand, has been rewarded with a jump of 10 places which has put him in a career-high 16th position.

Ian Bell is England’s second highest-ranked batsman in 20th position, while captain Alastair Cook is in 25th position.

Root had started the season in 38th position and after three Tests, he has moved into 16th position, thus, gaining 22 places on the batting table. Given he is still in the qualification period for batsmen, it is likely that he will move even further up the ladder if he performs strongly in the remaining four Tests of the series.

Also making good progress in the latest rankings are England’s other young guns – Gary Ballance and Sam Robson.

Ballance, who scored 71, has gained 13 places and is now in 70th position while Robson’s 59 has helped him rise 16 places to 78th.

For India, opener Murali Vijay has shown upward movement. The 30-year-old from Chennai scored 146 and 52 and has jumped 12 places to 30th position. He is now India’s fourth highest-ranked batsman after Cheteshwar Pujara (eighth), Virat Kohli (13th) and Mahenda Singh Dhoni (27th).

In the Reliance ICC Player Rankings for Test Bowlers, England’s Stuart Broad and India’s Bhuvneshwar Kumar are the biggest movers.

Broad returned match figures of four for 103, which has helped him rise four places to 10th position. Kumar picked up five for 82 in England’s only innings which has allowed him to break into the top 50 for the first time in his career. He now sits in 46th spot after jumping 27 places.

Sri Lanka v South Africa Test series
Meanwhile, the two-Test series between Sri Lanka and South Africa starts in Galle on Wednesday with the tourists in with a chance to reclaim their number-one position on the Reliance ICC Test Team Table.

To regain the spot which South Africa lost to Australia after the annual update on 1 May, it needs to win the series which will be enough to put Hashim Amla’s men ahead of Michael Clarke’s charges. In this scenario, South Africa will move one ratings point ahead of Australia, while a 2-0 series win will put the visitors on 126 ratings points.

On the other hand, if Sri Lanka wins the series then it will leapfrog England into fifth position while a 2-0 win will mean it will finish ahead of Pakistan and England in fourth spot.

The series will feature the top three batsmen in the world – number-one ranked AB de Villiers, second-ranked Kumar Sangakkara and third-ranked Hashim Amla – and two of the three best bowlers – number-one ranked Dale Steyn and third-ranked Vernon Philander.

Forthcoming Tests:
Sri Lanka v South Africa
16-20 July – 1st Test, Galle
24-28 July – 2nd Test, Colombo

England v India
17-21 July – 2nd Test, Lord’s
27-31 July – 3rd Test, Southampton
7-11 August – 4th Test, Manchester
15-19 August – 5th Test, The Oval

To find out exactly how the forthcoming series will affect the Rankings Table, please click here. The Test Rankings tables, unlike the ODI and T20I Rankings Table, are updated after every series.

Reliance ICC Test Team Rankings table (as on 14 July, before the start of England-India and Sri Lanka-South Africa series. The table will be updated after the conclusion of Sri Lanka-South Africa Test series)

Rank   Team              Rating      
1          Australia          123
2          South Africa   123
3          Pakistan           103
4          India                102
5          England           100
6          Sri Lanka         96
7          New Zealand  93
8          West Indies     74
9          Zimbabwe       40
10        Bangladesh     21
(Developed by David Kendix)

Reliance ICC ODI Player Rankings (as on 3 November and after India-Australia ODI series, after two ODIs between Pakistan and South Africa but before Sunday’s third ODI between Bangladesh and New Zealand)

Batsmen (top 20)
Rank     (+/-)         Player                 Team      Pts          Ave       HS Rating
1           ( – )          AB de Villiers        SA           922         51.94     935 v Aus at Port Elizabeth 2014
2           ( – )          K.Sangakkara      SL           896         58.63     938 v Eng at Kandy 2007
3           ( – )          Hashim Amla       SA           873         51.35     907 v Pak at Abu Dhabi 2013
4           ( – )          David Warner       Aus         871!       46.54     871 v SA at Cape Town 2014
5           ( – )          S.Chanderpaul     WI          854         51.88     901 v NZ at Napier 2008
6           ( – )          Misbah-ul-Haq    Pak         824!       48.75     824 v SL at Sharjah 2014
7           (+1)         Michael Clarke    Aus         818         51.50     900 v SL at Melbourne 2012
8           (-1)          C.Pujara                                Ind          812*      58.10     851 v SA at Durban 2013
9           ( – )          Ross Taylor          NZ          795         46.43     871 v WI at Hamilton 2013
10         (+1)         Angelo Mathews  SL           761!       48.40     761 v Eng at Headingley 2014
11         (+1)         Younus Khan       Pak         759         51.38     880 v SL at Lahore 2009
12         (+1)         Steven Smith        Aus         737*!    40.02     737 v SA at Cape Town 2014
13         (-3)          Virat Kohli            Ind          733         44.35     784 v NZ at Wellington 2014
14         ( – )          Kane Williamson NZ          728!       40.28     728 v WI at Bridgetown 2014
15         ( – )          M.Jayawardene   SL           696        50.18     883 v Ind at Ahmedabad 2009
16         (+10)      Joe Root                                Eng         679*!    47.17     679 v Ind at Trent Bridge 2014
17         (-1)          Chris Rogers         Aus         675*      38.14     694 v Eng at Sydney 2014
18         (-1)          Kevin Pietersen    Eng         654         47.28     909 v WI at Headingley 2007
19         ( – )          B.McCullum         NZ          651         37.10     724 v Ind at Wellington 2014
20         (-2)          Ian Bell                  Eng         649         44.99     822 v Ind at The Oval 2011

Selected Rankings
Rank     (+/-)         Player                 Team      Pts          Ave       HS Rating
21         (-1)          Faf du Plessis        SA           636*!    52.42     636 v Aus at Cape Town 2014
25         (-4)          Alastair Cook       Eng         619         45.67     874 v Ind at Kolkata 2012
27         (+2)         MS Dhoni              Ind          607         38.90     662 v SA at Kolkata 2010
30         (+12)      Murali Vijay         Ind          601*!    38.51     601 v Eng at Trent Bridge 2014
35         (-3)          Matt Prior              Eng         570         40.64     745 v NZ at Auckland 2013
37         (-1)          Alviro Petersen     SA           559         37.05     655 v NZ at Cape Town 2013
44         ( – )          JP Duminy            SA           517*      34.71     519 v Aus at Port Elizabeth 2014
46         (-1)          Ajinkya Rahane  Ind          497*      43.50     513 v NZ at Wellington 2014
49         ( – )          Kaushal Silva       SL           485*      37.68     506 v Eng at Lord’s 2014
51         (-1)          Shikhar Dhawan  Ind          451*      44.23     475 v NZ at Wellington 2014
53         ( – )          P.Jayawardena    SL           439         30.51     510 v Eng at Galle 2012
54         ( – )          Vernon Philander SA           435*!    27.45     435 v Aus at Cape Town 2014
62         (-6)          Ben Stokes            Eng         404*      31.00     441 v Aus at Sydney 2014
67         (+3)         Stuart Broad         Eng         390         24.22     505 v Ind at The Oval 2011
70         (+13)      Gary Ballance      Eng         385*!    49.50     385 v Ind at Trent Bridge 2014
78         (+16)      Sam Robson         Eng         347*!    46.00     347 v Ind at Trent Bridge 2014
83         (-2)          Dean Elgar            SA           335*      29.54     379 v Aus at Port Elizabeth 2014
99         (-6)          Moeen Ali             Eng         285*      44.00     308 v SL at Headingley 2014
119         (-2)          Quinton de Kock SA           205*      20.50     207 v Aus at Port Elizabeth 2014

Bowlers (top 20)
Rank      (+/-)        Player                Team       Pts          Ave      Econ      HS Rating
1         ( – )          Dale Steyn            SA           898         23.01     908 v Pak at Johannesburg 2013
2           ( – )          Ryan Harris          Aus         870!       22.56     870 v SA at Cape Town 2014
3           ( – )          Vernon Philander SA           865         20.11     912 v Ind at Johannesburg 2013
4           ( – )          Mitchell Johnson Aus         844!       27.42     844 v SA at Cape Town 2014
5           ( – )          Saeed Ajmal         Pak         787         27.46     855 v Zim at Harare 2013
6           ( – )          Tim Southee         NZ          783         29.83     799 v WI at Kingston 2014
7           (+1)         Rangana Herath  SL           739         30.51     838 v NZ at Colombo (PSS) 2012
8=        (+1)         Trent Boult           NZ          737*      27.45     767 v Ind at Wellington 2014
(-1)          R.Ashwin               Ind          737         28.50     808 v WI at Mumbai 2013
10         (+4)         Stuart Broad         Eng         734         30.36     783 v WI at Lord’s 2012
11=       (-1)          Kemar Roach       WI          733!       27.04     733 v NZ at Bridgetown 2014
(-1)          Peter Siddle           Aus         733         29.37     816 v Eng at Old Trafford 2013
13         (-1)          James Anderson  Eng         727         30.50     813 v Ind at Edgbaston 2011
14         (-1)          Pragyan Ojha       Ind          719         30.26     773 v Eng at Kolkata 2012
15         ( – )          Abdur Rehman    Pak         705*      27.75     739 v Eng at Dubai 2012
16         ( – )          Morne Morkel      SA           637         30.97     776 v Aus at Cape Town 2011
17         ( – )          Junaid Khan         Pak         623*!    29.07     623 v SL at Sharjah 2014
18         ( – )          Shakib Al Hasan Ban        613         33.36     680 v WI at Mirpur 2011
19         ( – )          Nathan Lyon        Aus         607         32.99     648 v Eng at Melbourne 2013
20         ( – )          Zaheer Khan        Ind          575         32.94     752 v SA at Durban 2010

Selected Rankings
Rank     (+/-)      Player                Team       Pts          Ave      Econ      HS Rating
23         ( – )          Ishant Sharma     Ind          548         37.79     671 v WI at Dominica 2011
28         (-2)          Ravindra Jadeja  Ind          468*      28.52     570 v SA at Durban 2013
30         (-1)          Chris Tremlett      Eng         460*      27.00     638 v Ind at Lord’s 2011
31         ( – )          Ajantha Mendis   SL           427*      33.55     572 v Ban at Chittagong 2009
34         (-1)          M.Shami               Ind          407*      31.86     422 v NZ at Wellington 2014
39         ( – )          Kyle Abbott          SA           354*!    16.41     354 v Aus at Cape Town 2014
45         ( – )          Suranga Lakmal  SL           315*      49.35     324 v Ban at Mirpur 2014
46         (+27)      B.Kumar               Ind          304*!    30.21     304 v Eng at Trent Bridge 2014
49         ( – )          Imran Tahir          SA           295*      43.08     312 v Pak at Dubai 2013
50=       ( – )          Liam Plunkett      Eng         284*      38.37     286 v SL at Headingley 2014
(+1)         JP Duminy            SA           284*      39.03     302 v Eng at Johannesburg 2010
52         (-6)          Ben Stokes            Eng         283*      37.23     311 v Aus at Sydney 2014
54         (-1)          Dilruwan Perera   SL           282*      36.27     288 v Ban at Chittagong 2014
81         ( – )          Angelo Mathews  SL           143*!    60.66     143 v Eng at Headingley 2014
86         (+12)      Moeen Ali             Eng         132*!    54.71     132 v Ind at Trent Bridge 2014
95         (-1)          Wayne Parnell      SA           74*        36.85     172 v Ind at Nagpur 2010
100      ( – )          Dean Elgar            SA           47*        54.33     60 v Aus at Port Elizabeth 2014

All-rounders

Rank    (+/-)        Player                 Team       Pts        HS Rating
1              ( – )          Vernon Philander SA           376*/ !  376 v Aus at Cape Town 2014
2           ( – )          R. Ashwin              Ind          366*/    419 v WI at Mumbai 2013
3           ( – )          Shakib Al Hasan Ban        364        404 v Pak at Mirpur 2011
4           (+1)         Stuart Broad         Eng         286        382 v Pak at Abu Dhabi 2012
5           (-1)          Mitchell Johnson Aus         280        384 v Eng at Cardiff 2009

!      Indicates career-highest rating
*    Indicates provisional rating; a batsman qualifies for a full rating after playing 40 Test innings; a bowler qualifies for a full rating when he reaches 100 Test wickets.
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